Judge: siblings stay in home

The semi in Binfield where Harry and Denise have lived since they were born

A devoted brother and sister have fought off an eviction bid from the council house they have lived in for 50 years.

Harry and Denise Green should be allowed to stay in the three-bedroom home in Billingbear in Binfield, where they have lived for most of their lives.

Bracknell Borough Council had decided they should leave the semi as it had become top big for the two of them and could be used more effectively for a family.

But ruling on the siblings' appeal, the judge said: “One wonders how many people in their 50s still live in the house where they were born?”

The semi was the siblings’ childhood home.

Denise was just four when her parents moved into the house and her brother was born there in 1958.

Their dad died in 1969, but their mum lived there until her death, aged 80, in 2005.

Her ashes are buried under a tree 50 yards from the property.

Harry, 50, and his sister, 54, said their home, where they live with their two pet dogs, is “part of the family”.

They say that “every inch of the house has memories”.

However, Bracknell Forest Council said they should be ordered out, arguing that, since their mum’s death in April 2005, the house has been bigger than the two of them need, and could be used more effectively,

The “highly desirable” home – worth about £500,000 – is a sorely needed part of the area’s dwindling social housing stock and, if the Greens moved out, it could be a home to a needy couple with at least two children, council lawyers said.

However, Lord Justice Mummery said it was “reasonable” for the Greens to stay where they are.

The judge recognised the position of the council, struggling to deal with the “rising tide of repossessions” and “horrors of homelessness”. However, he ruled the Greens’ “unusually long period of occupation” and their emotional attachment to their home, “outweighed the pressures on public housing”.

When considering the Greens’ case last year, Judge Gary Flather said if forced to move the siblings might “never be able to settle down anywhere else”.

Council barrister David Carter told the Appeal Court the Right to Buy policy had decimated Bracknell Forest’s social housing stock and applicants for three-bedroom homes faced a nine-year waiting list.